Friday, June 8, 2012

June 8th

The home study agent is due here today around noon.

In the grand tradition of all our visitors, she is with her family and on her way up from a vacation in Florida. We decided it would be prudent to combine business with pleasure, as normally she lives hours north of us.

So, I spent all day yesterday cleaning things that normally never would get cleaned and probably won't even be on her sunburned, dizzy-headed post vacation mind- like the underside of the treadmill and behind the couch and the inside of the washing machine.

I am not kidding. I cleaned that. I don't even think the house was this clean when we moved in.

Her whole family will be with her, so I wonder- will they all troop through our house? Am I the hostess or the reviewed? What is she looking for, exactly?

I asked her yesterday, over the phone and her answer was sort of vague. It was something along the lines of "to see the house."

I know she has to write descriptively about the house in the home study report, because our placement agency sent us a sample study.

In fact, the requirements of being a home study agent seem to be excellent organizational skills, an ability to grasp by-laws, a flexible schedule and an ability to write creatively.

And... she has come and gone. Phew.

It went really well. Her family waited outside in the SUV, though we invited them in. I wonder if they are used to these sorts of side tracks on family trips.

She took a few notes on the rooms, saw that it was a three bedroom, two bathroom ranch and admired the view of the pool from the master bedroom.

She didn't open a single cupboard or the refrigerator- even though Keith went on an emergency run to the grocery store so we could stock it with enticing fruits and vegetables- look, we eat healthily and according to the government pyramid chart! We will be excellent parents.

The entire dining table was covered with paperwork, and that wasn't even all of it. I think we're almost sixty percent done. We breezed through the stuff we had finished, and then we ended up just chatting about stuff.

It went really well, but as soon as she left, Keith and I made a bee-line for the pool. We hung out in there for almost two hours, floating around and de-stressing.

I am worn out.

Tomorrow, we are going to purchase one quarter of a cow and store it in our deep freezer. That's how we do romance here in the Indiana household: a nice, quiet drive into the country side to buy over a hundred pounds of beef.

I should wear heels and maybe even take the camera. Who knows, maybe we'll get some great family togetherness shots.